I was super excited to start this book — not just because it opens in my hometown of Boston and proved a perfect match to my morning coffee, but because I was curious about Maria’s narrative style given she has a background in both theatre and bureaucracy. I only intended to read a couple of pages but wound up breezing through the first chapter. Maria was a print-ready interviewee and her book has the same flavor. A self-professed “slow writer”, Maria’s voice is so smooth that it’s easy to imagine the words come to her effortlessly. Even the prologue in this book is so tidy it feels like part of a lesson on How to Write the Perfect Prologue — the scene is set, the main character is introduced, her voice is clear, her conflicts are foreshadowed etc…

The tagline reads: “From the halls of Harvard to the beds of the psych ward” so I know I’m going to learn a lot about Maria’s personal journey in this book, but I also think I’m going to learn a lot about writing as well!

Oh, that’s nice to hear. I’m just always surprised when a book that’s so easy to read has been written so well! More often than not, you can see the writer pulling the strings IYKWIM? This one makes me think that everything Maria types must just naturally be ready to publish. 😀